But There Is a Friend Who Sticks Closer Than a Brother

Oh wow, I haven't written here for a while now! Life is just so jam-packed, dealing with overdue final term papers from last semester, 3 upcoming projects premieres for the next 7 months, a timeline that seems like next to impossible, and immigration papers to Canadian permanent residence that seem to lead nowhere...yet.

And here I am, sitting inside a bus while making my way back to Montréal. I spent the weekend in Toronto to deal with my US tourist visa application (and I got approved!!), check on mom and friends too, and deal with Canadian immigration concerns. Being with people you consider family is simply a gift. It doesn't come cheap: it costs a lot just to be able to enjoy this (especially in my case, travelling hundreds of kilometres just to be there). It doesn't matter though, as I believe that God "puts the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6)," and I believe that also includes people like me who really long for significance in relationships with people.

Something spectacular happened too, as a prophetic word came yesterday at our church worship service. It turned out that the Word was referring directly to my situation, even though the moment seemed spontaneous. Pastor Bert (Thomson) later commented (non-verbatim) that, "It must be necessary that God wants to nail down that specific message at this very moment [that I'm here in Toronto]." And yes, it really lifted up my spirits. I am encouraged to know that He knows the struggle and the pain of going through tough financial scarcity and looming tuition fee bills. It's really a big mountain out there, but He wants faith to further build my trust in Him alone.

I've mentioned that I went to Toronto to spend time with friends. In fact, I stayed at a friend's place for two nights, besides spending another two nights at mom's place. Man, spending time with these two beloved "brothers-by-name" (katukayo in Tagalog) is really priceless! With the little time we had for bonding, we worked out hard with swimming and ice skating in one single day. And this guy and I would stay up very very late and just talk about loads of stuff. It became a game for us that we tried setting our record on the latest time we've slept every time we had sleepovers (the latest was 9am, after a very long conversation overnight). Talk about bromance and quality time just because of having same names...

This mushy-mushy brotherhood (lol) reminded me of David (who would eventually be Israel's king) and Jonathan (who was King Saul's eldest son, the supposed heir of the throne). Their friendship is just so remarkable that the Scriptures recounted Jonathan, even as the legal heir, putting his loyalty to David whom he saw as God's anointed and the real successor to the throne. I've learned before that in relationships with people, there will be our "David moments" when we would need "Jonathans" who would support us and prop us all the way in our turning points in life. And at the same time, there will be our "Jonathan moments" when we would have to support a "David" in his/her destiny towards accomplishing God's will in his/her life.

This still resonates in my soul, as I've already seen how we became "Davids" and "Jonathans" with each other in the course of our still-newfound brotherhood. And its potential of being a shining light and a blessing to other people's lives looks like a challenging yet exciting prospect. This deep friendship functions like an avenue to demonstrate God's love to people, and that it can also lead people to look for both God and the right relationships in their lives as well.

And so I appreciate how God brings the lonely in families. I believe that He meant lives to be entangled in some way for lost people to find the light and be saved, as the case of my Thai friend who seemed to just end up being in Canada and in Toronto at random. In retrospect, no no, it wasn't random at all; it is something that God orchestrated. And so this pushes me to value relationships more and be intentional about demonstrating God's love. God works through relationships.

This is hard; this is something to be learned and to put strategy on. I need to learn to trust people more and put down walls that hinder me from being connected and, yes, vulnerable (I hate being vulnerable). Friendships cost me a lot, but surely it will make all the difference in the world.

So yeah, this goes to homies out there (especially to my best bros).